Alright I am back with part 2 of turn 1. I will deal with the south first

I see that the 51st is the weakest link. Plus it has a road and a railroad, so I am thinking if I cut them off there I can disrupt something at least. I will attack them.

From the forums and AARs i've read, as always, Arty and Air first before attack.

I should point out that I don't know what those little numbers mean by the way, if someone could tell me i'd greatly appreciate it

The bombing is done and I remember players using cards, so I will have Mackensen take charge of a unit for a spirited attack. Vic by the way if you ever read this, can you put in a button that lets you review the battles that have taken place on your turn just to see them? Like a history button? Thanks <3

Ok the card is played and we will attack

Only one group can attack and I don't know why but here we go

Luckily I win.

Here is where I screw up a lot in this game, movement. As you see I messed up and now the 51st can do whatever

As you see from my previous screenshot, i moved the up the 14th and now I attack again, I am trying to encircle them or at least cut their line in half. I dunno. I'm the worst general ever.

I win and split the 14th up to encircle or at least screw up their southern line. I think this is a tactic!

I also eye their 106th

And just tell myself, you know what. They are weak there. why not. I think i'm being to aggressive. But I want to slow them down somehow.

I miss the screenshot but I end up out of AP and retreat.

I think i'll leave the south alone. Time to do something up north.

As we go north, I see the Soviets have the advantage.

So I will just move the 44th down and wait for their 124th to abuse me on their turn.

I think about it some more and make some movements and strategic movements to prep my defense. I move the 113th, 521st and 670th up (or down as would be the case)

Now onto the top for real

I am boned here and I know it. So I will prepare my defenses as best as I can

I move up the various units and use my HQ cards to entrench. I hope this works

This is the map before I pass the turn:

I pass the turn and here is what the Soviets do

I sigh because I am an idiot and they wreck me. I will post turn 2 tomorrow. I must go to bed now. It's 4am!

Bed? Since it was 4am what was the point of wasting time going to bed?? You may as well have kept at it...you were so close to victory, but you let something like sleep get in your way.

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"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman

Not a lot going wrong there really. Early Kharkov always looks scary but the Soviets soon run out of steam and you have now weathered the storm. Obviously you have been having to use anything available to make attacks in the early game, but from now on I'd be more picky. Only make attacks in clear terrain with German units with high levels of readiness and APs. I notice you've also been using your HQ units and engineers to attack; that is fine when you're desperate, but now you are starting to get reinforcements I think you're better off saving them for their main functions.

There is no need to attack across the line any more so start using your artillery and aircraft to support most initial attack you make each turn.

As the 44th infantry has managed to keep a bridgehead across the river I'd also be looking to reinforce that area over the river with panzers. It is good clear attacking terrain to try and cut the attacking Soviet forces off. It is a long time since I've played it, so this strategy depends on you having time to move your panzers into position.

Use your fighter units (JG and ZG) to wipe the Soviet air force from the sky before you make any attacks with your KG bombers. Use the KG bombers against Soviet infantry and use your Stukas to pick off the tank units.

Sorry for repeat posting but I keep noticing stuff. Your individual artillery units are way behind the frontlines, you need to get them moving up, remember, for full efficiency your artillery needs to be stationary before firing. Also once they've fired, providing they dont move you need four turns for them to re-stock for another full barrage.

No need to apologize for repeat posting. Please post as much as possible. I had NO idea about the artillery stuff. In fact I had no idea about anything you just posted. You are helping a lot. If you notice something please please please post it. You are amazing I owe you 50 beers

Should I finish off the units that I've cut off (the 21st, the 2nd, 337th) or leave them there?

Individual choice really. If they're blocking off a rail line or road then probably best to finish off. In a campaign I'd finish them all off anyway, but in the Kharkov scenario time is limited IIRC so if they're not in the way I would leave them be. If you've got enough recon points check to see how much readiness they have. If it is below 20 then the chances are that their APs will also be very low and they wont be able to move, so you could leave them be - they wont recover their readiness or APs as they are out of supply.

The SchG is a dive-bombing group, basically all the non Stuka divebombers. The JG is the fighter unit. It has 100 readiness so would normally be okay to fly. However it is a rain turn so its attack, defence and movement values are all reduced by 50%. Every player has their own strategy for attacking with planes. As a general rule of thumb I like to keep a stack fairly high. That JG units only has 35 planes so I would normally combine it with another unit to launch an attack. Each player has different tactics as I said, another tactic, especially if you think the Soviet airforce is weak is to just do your fighter attacks with one units at a time, more risky, but means you get greater coverage.

Also my own preference is not to attack at all in rain turns as it rapidly reduces the readiness of your units, again, other players will have different tactics. I use rain turns to rest my units up ready for the next attack.

On a clear weather turn the first air movement I do will be to pick a clear hex away from Soviet units just behind their frontlines and ttack it with fighter. Keep on repeating with all your fighter units. This should hten use up most of the Soviet fighters in interception duties, leaving your bombers and divebombers to concentrate on the ground forces.

jonny211 and Bonners you have no idea how much i'm slapping my forehead right now because i'm like "Oh God i'm such an idiot, these posts are so brilliant." I have no idea why I never thought of attacking russian fighters at their airfields (facepalm) or that SchG and JG were different classes for different things. I read the historical descriptions and I was like oh okay, i guess they're all kinda bombers and used them to attack any hex that I was planning on attacking regardless of what the enemy had.

Since this turn is heavy snow, I should just focus on repostioning my units to prepare for the next attacks for next turn?

Also you'll notice that I never used recon, because I forgot how. I keep telling myself before I start a turn to look it up in the manual but I keep forgetting.

One more thing:

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bonners

As the 44th infantry has managed to keep a bridgehead across the river I'd also be looking to reinforce that area over the river with panzers. It is good clear attacking terrain to try and cut the attacking Soviet forces off. It is a long time since I've played it, so this strategy depends on you having time to move your panzers into position.

So I attack enemy hexes with infantry and then use my tanks to advance through the enemy hex i just broke through?

jonny211 and Bonners you have no idea how much i'm slapping my forehead right now because i'm like "Oh God i'm such an idiot, these posts are so brilliant." I have no idea why I never thought of attacking russian fighters at their airfields (facepalm) or that SchG and JG were different classes for different things. I read the historical descriptions and I was like oh okay, i guess they're all kinda bombers and used them to attack any hex that I was planning on attacking regardless of what the enemy had.

Since this turn is heavy snow, I should just focus on repostioning my units to prepare for the next attacks for next turn?

Also you'll notice that I never used recon, because I forgot how. I keep telling myself before I start a turn to look it up in the manual but I keep forgetting.

One more thing:

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bonners

As the 44th infantry has managed to keep a bridgehead across the river I'd also be looking to reinforce that area over the river with panzers. It is good clear attacking terrain to try and cut the attacking Soviet forces off. It is a long time since I've played it, so this strategy depends on you having time to move your panzers into position.

So I attack enemy hexes with infantry and then use my tanks to advance through the enemy hex i just broke through?

If there are any weak units around, then yes attack on the rain turn. I dont fly recon that much TBH, I have better uses for my aircraft. There is recon available to a limited degree anyway. Depending on the strength of your units you will be able to see some details of the opposing Russian units, put simply, the more units you have nearby the more details you'll be able to see on the Russian units.

As for attacking, it depends really. If it a clear hex then I will use panzers as they will generally crush Russian infantry and breakthrough the line quicker, that is why I was suggesting moving panzers to that point, there are some clear hexes you can fight through and hopefully break the Russian line. General rule of thumb for me is cites and fortifications attack with infantry supported by Stugs, across rivers attack with infantry, occasionally supported by tanks if I'm desperate and for clear hexes that is where your tanks come into their own. Break up the enemy entrenchment first with air and artillery and then blast on through with the tanks. Where possibly I like to attack with a whole panzer division intact, so I have the two motorized infantry regiments and the tank regiment attacking together.

I know the symbols are confusing as they are slightly different to the normal symbols, but you should also note that each German division (whether panzer or infantry) has a fourth unit which is an artillery unit. Obviously this units doesnt go into the attack, but blasts with artillery first. Again, you need to check its supply level to make sure it can do the full barrage effect.

I see you used a panzer regiment to attack an urban hex. Not ideal, as tanks get their attack value halved doing this. Use them - and risk them taking casualties - on open terrain only if the situation allows it, as they are your best overrun tool (they have the necessary speed for pursuing and breaking weakened retreated enemy units). If you play longer scenarios like Case Blue or Trappenjagd in a pbem, the Axis player should be very careful not to burn them out too soon, as the replacement rate for German tanks is very low. So I'd strongly suggest to tackle urban/hill/forrest hexes with infantry only whenever possible.

In general you have got the hang of how and where to attack, but down south you got a very bloody nose attacking a hill hex. There you probably attacked without reducing the entrenchment level enough. The enemy defends longer due to more slowly taking casualties when nicely entrenched, so you can do your attacking forces a huge favour if you soften up urban/hill/forrest hexes more thoroughly, as your chance to win will be significantly higher and your own losses lower (the sooner the enemy retreats or breaks in a battle, the better for you). Softening up a hex with levelbombers and artillery does both lower entrenchment AND has a chance to disrupt defenders (white figures in the column where losses - red - show up), and disrupted defenders don't fire back.

So if you want to get a nice kill and win ratio with your attacks, don't attack when you don't have a good feeling after inspecting both attacking and defending forces a) for their relative readiness levels (don't attack well rested defenders when your troops have been driven too hard - my regiments hardly ever attack with readiness lower than 85), b) supply (whenever possible don't attack with supply lower than 1, like this enemies seem to take higher casualties) and c) remaining action points (the lower the action point level of your regiments is, the sooner they'll stop firing at their enemies, and I personally really hate not to take a hex because my attackers ran out of action points...).

ORIGINAL: heyhellowhatsnew ... Since this turn is heavy snow, I should just focus on repostioning my units to prepare for the next attacks for next turn? ...

Just another sidenote: Moving and attacking in mud (heavy rain/snow) costs your units more AP and readiness, so be careful with how far you move them. Make some tests for yourself and compare the effects of moving different unit types in mud/nonmud turns. During mud turns I hardly ever move my units more than 1 hex (possible exception motorized/mechanized units along rails and roads).

ORIGINAL: heyhellowhatsnew ... Since this turn is heavy snow, I should just focus on repostioning my units to prepare for the next attacks for next turn? ...

Just another sidenote: Moving and attacking in mud (heavy rain/snow) costs your units more AP and readiness, so be careful with how far you move them. Make some tests for yourself and compare the effects of moving different unit types in mud/nonmud turns. During mud turns I hardly ever move my units more than 1 hex (possible exception motorized/mechanized units along rails and roads).

No, the purpose of this AAR really is to ask the community (beg the community really) to help me figure out what i've done wrong and how I can improve. This is a knowledgeable and great community and I thought instead of asking general questions, if I made it into an AAR, you would all be able to point out my mistakes so I can learn!

Please everyone keep posting and pointing out my errors! I am in all of your debts and owe you all so many beers.

One (really stupid) question

you see in this pic

What do those numbers mean? for example, the most right unit is part of the 106th, but below it it says 24. What does the 24 mean?

Your units need to be in range of their parent HQ, there are two ways to check this. One, if you click on the unit and go into the details tab you will see one bit of information which states 'HQ power', you want this to ideally be at 100% which shows the unit is in range of its HQ. The other way to check is to click on the HQ unit and all its subordinate units will then be highlighted. You will also see a green overlay on the map, this is the range of the HQ. At the edges of its range you will see other colours, which show that the units are on the edge of the HQ's range. Why is this important? Well go back to the details tab and look at the figures under the HQ power stat; depending on the strength of the HQ unit there will be a combat modifier - this can be quite high especially for some of the German HQ units.

The big number on each unit is to give an idea of the raw numbers left in the unit. It is combination of its infantry, tanks, guns, transport etc... I think the actual breakdown is somewhere in the manual, but although this number is important I'm always looking at things like readiness, experience, morale and integrity as mroe important factors in judging a units strength.

Your brave..I'm reasonably experienced wargamer but never really get on with large scenarios..I found the linked campaign to be the best in this game for my preferences.

Where and how to find pleasure is a very individual thing. Large scenarios do eat away larger amounts of time, that's for sure. I have a great time learning from my mistakes, and seeing my plans - or plan changes which were forced upon me by my opponent or by a competent AI - fall into place is extremely rewarding. More so in larger scenarios, where I find myself pondering over where and how to commit scarce resources to achieve what you intend to. I really encourage everybody to give these larger scenarios a try, because a pbem with somebody who is at a comparable spot on the learning curve can really multiply the fun you have.